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Highly experienced IT&T staff with business and analytics skills are in demand to cover a rapid increase in project work, according to a new report.

Randstad IT division general manager, Dominic Du Faur, said companies have the ability to attract entry-level IT skills, but reported high demand for niche skills and senior resources, particularly in areas such as project management, business analysts and solution architects.

The findings come from the specialist recruitment and HR services company’s World of Work Report, which surveyed 2300 respondents across Asia-Pacific including Australia.

“Across the board, there’s a massive up skill in activity within the technology projects,” Du Faur, said. “Now that projects are ramping up again, clients are scurrying around to find more highly-skilled resources, strong technical skills.”

The report also indicated 70 per cent of organisations in IT&T believe the skills shortage is already evident. Some of the roles that are likely to be in short supply include technical niche roles for Microsoft Sharepoint and .Net, skilled professionals in systems, software and solutions architecture, technical and solutions sales professionals, engineers, programmers and project managers.

“Everyone in looking to implement the same thing and we see a lot demand from the major financial services companies. They had probably put some of their projects on hold during the GFC, and now they’re ramping up,” he said. There’s a major need for CRM and document management resources.”

Du Faur also noted testing roles will be in huge demand as companies want to trial and measure new systems before they’re fully implemented.

“There’s big gap in the testing market. As projects ramp up, everyone needs to test the products they’re delivering and there’s a big gap in available resources in that as well, and you can’t offshore that work,” he said. “You can offshore core technical roles; programmers, datacentre and technical support, but business analysts and project managers need to be on the ground.”

Pressure on employee salaries will continue this year, especially if companies want to keep their talented staff on-board, Du Faur said. The survey also found 24 per cent of respondents believed attracting talent will be the biggest challenge this year. There was also a concern that increasing staff turnover will impact workplace productivity.

A further 66 per cent of staff will also expect a bonus in the next 12 months.

Other findings from the Randstad report indicated 60 per cent of respondents across sectors actively hire mature-aged workers, but the figure dropped significantly to 48 per cent within in the area of IT&T.

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